3WW–Colliding Worlds chapter 16–button, luck, pretend

Some or much of the dialogue is very trite. Hard to focus on anything but preping my apartment as the work to be done is minor yet detail oriented and what will give the apartment extra marketability. It’s a small apartment with some very elegant features and some that should be.
My friends are freaking me. Each one tells me how special our friendship is. They are all very special to me. It’s going to be hard yet it’s time. Keep running into old friends. Feel very blessed and all want to visit me, and have invited me to visit so I can never say I won’t have places to stay in New York. It’s $69 on Spirit; 90 minutes long. Takes longer to get out to the East End of the Island. My sister thinks I should move to the North Fork. Tempting but cold.

3WW has moved
Here is a page with all prior chapters, and a basic summary.
I write the chapters in advance and add the words. They are true first drafts.

When Justin stunned Nadia she tumbled half on Cornelia’s torso and half onto the bed. Cornelia looked bright eyed at Justin:
Pool boy what the f–k are you doing?

How could he explain that he was trying to save his love Nell who was in Cornelia somewhere from Nadia? Denny who was babbling about nothing in the basement prison seemed such a tame enemy compared to Nadia and her brother. Justin wasn’t sure that Ilya/Yuri had half the formula. Max walked out of the bathroom with Nadia’s bra. She didn’t really need one and not because she had breasts that looked up to God.
I’m going to take this to be analyzed. Justin do you want Ona to come in?
Not yet. I’m going to try to talk to her myself.
•••••••••••••••••••••
Nell tried to be heard but Cornelia was so dominant, and Ella wanted to come out. Nell was strong. She had survived much and wasn’t going to give into alternate personalities yet she was tired, so tired of trying to assert herself. Nell was a believer in irony. This was the most ironic situation she had ever found herself in. Her self giving into other selves. She couldn’t allow that. Could she reason with Cornelia and Ella? Probably not. She should be able to find some way to exploit their many weaknesses but no technique she knew worked on them.

Nell had a Doctorate in Psychology. She was famed for her ability to talk people down, but this chip in her brain, it was overpowering everything. It felt as though it was a huge button put on the heaviest string that wouldn’t break off and was controlled by somebody else. Or many other elses.

All she could think of were song lyrics, “please don’t go away. Is this the way it’s supposed to be?” Books she had designed were floating through her mind. Most people read ebooks and books online. Books were for the elite. Some of her books went for millions of Euro/Asia/Amer dollars. They had all been designed while she listened to music, and she couldn’t get the music she had designed the books to out of her head. Nell Lehman killed by music and her own books. No, she couldn’t allow that. She had to break out. She had to let Justin know that the formula wasn’t detectable but was in every pore of Nadia’s body. Nadia had bragged about that to Cornelia who hadn’t been listening. But Nell felt herself floating into a cacophony of music and books. She wasn’t just losing her edge she was losing herself. “Baby I wish you were here tonight….If I knew that you were here….” With every cell, neuron and the rest of the parts of her brain she still “owned” she willed herself to communicate.
••••••••••••••••••••
Cornelia beckoned to Justin by pushing her hand onto the foam bed. She had to get out of the bed but she had to have the pool boy even more. The girl had told her that she belonged to her and maybe she did but why would the pool boy be here. He took her breath away. Cornelia could hear voices in her head trying to tell her something but she was so used to them she pretended they were waves in the ocean. Sometimes she would hear music in her head; she would want to dance, and damn did she want to dance now.
Or f–k pool boy. Or both. Her voice took on a husky tone Justin hadn’t heard before:
Hey pool boy, do I know you? I remember seeing you, but did we f–k? I’m a creature of the moment. If you don’t remember my name it’s Cornelia. I guess I have a last name, everybody does, but I don’t use mine. Del does all the signing, and takes care of all the gritty details. I’m not good at anything but sex and partying. Del says that all I have to do. He prefers that I party with him but I don’t see him here. Now she says that I belong to her. I think I go to the highest bidder. You should find Del and pay him. Then I won’t belong to her anymore, and you can do whatever you want to me. What’s with her anyway? She’s like unconscious. Find Del. No, don’t. Out of sight…Give me a cigarette.

Justin shook inwardly. This wasn’t the Cornelia he had been talking to. Cornelia, but an even more childish version. Max better have the bra analyzed soon. The brain scan should come soon. Justin had brought down leaders of dictatorships; he had killed enemies of democracy with his bare hands but the many personalities of Nell was beyond him. He gave her a cigarette. She smoked it greedily and gulped a ginger/raspberry fizz Nadia had prepared with another API:
That was great. Beyond great really. Get me another. Do you have a name poolboy? Na, it’s not important. You’re just a pool boy, pool boys don’t need names. Del says I’m a princess and princesses don’t need to know servant’s names. Just use them. I’m not a real princess of course. America doesn’t have royalty. Is there a screen with gossip vids? I want to hear some. I don’t believe in reading…..

Justin’s head was spinning. He couldn’t believe one person could talk so fast. Cornelia or whoever this personality was, was so insipid. He brought her a ginger/raspberry fizz from the fridge. Ona’s voice piped into his ear.
I’m listening to everything. You have to tell her who you are and who she is.
Justin walked away and spoke softly:
Why? It hasn’t made a difference so far.
She might be receptive soon.
Do you have the brain scan?
Yes. Her brain looks perfectly normal aside from the chip. We’re experimenting with taking chips out.
And?
Ona’s sigh felt like a high C in his ear:
It’s better to keep it in until we know how to reverse the effects.
And when will that be?
I don’t know. Maybe not for weeks.
Cornelia was calling for him:
Pool boy what are you doing? Standing with your back to me. That’s rude. I dislike rudeness.
I’m not a pool boy. I’m Justin. You’re Nell, my wife, not Cornelia.
That’s absurd. Didn’t we have this conversation?
Yes, a few hours ago.
then you know I’m not Nell. Why are we even talking? There’s something about you. You’re very sexy. Come here. Your luck is about to change.

Justin sighed. He remembered that last line from an 80’s movie The Big Easy Nell had loved, and he loved watching with Nell. Was Cornelia using Nell’s memories?

For a couple of seconds her face had Nell’s expressions. He heard Ona telling him not to, but he couldn’t help himself as he flipped Nadia off the bed onto the floor and got in next to Nell/Cornelia. He wanted her so much. This might not be Nell but Justin didn’t need to pretend feelings.

She knew just how to undress him. How to touch him in places no other woman had ever thought of. They were both eager, almost too eager. She went on top of him. Their bodies fit so perfectly, they came at the same second. This was sex between two people who loved each other, or wanted each other desperately. He softly almost cried her name: “Nell?”
Yes, Justin, oh my god Justin. I don’t know how much time I have so listen. The formula comes from Nadia’s body. I don’t know how but it comes from her sweat. Denny thinks he can take over the world and he’s not completely delusional. Del’s alive, and basically a robot. The chip is going to take over my thinking soon, but you can’t take it out. When it’s taken out of people like me they turn into robot/zombies.
Justin I love you so much. Please know that. Whoever I turn into, remember that. Play music especially Jack Johnson, Warren Zevon. No don’t play music that might make it worse. I’m so confused. My memory….
We’ll make it out of this, together and whole.
You couldn’t love me more than I love you. Remember that. I don’t have your faith. Too much has happened….

They put a sheet over their bodies as Max came in and took Nadia. Even in the ultimate act of love they had no privacy. They did have each other. For the moment.